On May 1, a Missouri man named Duane Lester published on his personal blog a post titled "Changes Implemented After MO Auditor Finds ‘Serious Shortcomings' In Holt County Sheriff's Department." 10 days later, the local newspaper for Oregon, Missouri, covered the same story Duane had written about on his blog. In fact, the Oregon Times Observer was so inspired by his post, they used Duane's same headline and his copy! Without permission or attribution. All they did was tack on an extra paragraph at the end. Incredible!But Duane didn't take this lying down. He went down to the Observer's headquarters and confronted Robert "Bob" Ripley, Publisher and Managing Editor of the Oregon Times Observer, arguably the man responsible for the plagiarism, bringing with him a letter asserting copyright. After a incredibly roundabout and generally difficult conversation, they ultimately cut Bob a check for $500.

Here is the video of the encounter:

"Oh, for pity's sakes ... in a little hometown paper!"

Yep, even little hometown papers must obey the copyright law.

"In my day ..."

In your day, violating the copyright was also wrong.

"You're going to make a fast five hundred bucks."

No, it took a lot of time to write the article they stole.

Why would they even think they could reprint an article in full without attribution and without permission? This is not fair use--it is simple theft.